Fuller President Mark Labberton issued a call for attentiveness in his keynote address at the 53rd Annual California Prayer Breakfast in Sacramento, California, on May 29.

The bipartisan event, co-hosted by California Assemblymember Das Williams and Senator Jean Fuller, brings together California State legislators and guests in a time of scripture reading and prayer for the state and its leadership. The prayer breakfast has a long history in the state capitol, stretching back to the terms of Governors Pat Brown and Ronald Reagan.

In his address Dr. Labberton invited participants to consider that “the call to prayer is a call to pay attention to God, to ourselves, and to the world in God’s name.” Through various stories and in scripture, Labberton described how attentiveness serves as a prayerful act, explaining, “The work we do is a sacred work because it has the attentiveness of God.” In turn, “We are invited to rest in the attentiveness of God . . . which clarifies that we are not God.”

“People will never remember what you did but they will remember how you made them feel,” he added, concluding that “when we pray, our vision for people starts to change.”